As computing devices have developed, they have become capable of displaying complex objects. Mathematically-defined formats of these objects are created and stored in a data file communicatively coupled to the computing device and may include such information as the geometry, texture, lighting, and shading characteristics of the object. In order to display these objects on a variety of computing devices, the object is transformed into a format that is easily displayed on a computing device. This process is called rendering, and the resultant object format is rasterized. Rendering can be a computationally expensive process that utilizes large amounts of computer bandwidth to perform. One method of simplifying the rendering process is tessellation. Tessellation reduces a complex object into simpler, more manageable units that can be converted more quickly by the processor.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements.